There’s something fishy about the Republican push to end the city’s rent regulations, at least according to some Democrats, and they’re going to get to the bottom of it. The Daily News reported that the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenant advocate group, submitted a Freedom of Information Law request for all communications between landlord groups and leaders in the Republican-controlled state Senate. Austin Shafran, an aide to Senate Democrats, said the “affordable housing massacre” being staged by the GOP “needs to be exposed.” But a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County countered that the party “make[s] the decision to support or oppose legislation based on the merits, plain and simple.” [NYDN]

From the May issue: As New York’s rental market begins to recover, landlords and tenants are once again at loggerheads about a controversial method being used to weed out some applicants: blacklists.

Some say tenants are being unfairly blacklisted from renting apartments if they’ve ever tangled with a landlord in court. Whether a tenant has been involved in an eviction proceeding, or even if he has simply withheld rent from a landlord for not making a repair, or just dared to challenge his landlord in court over something as basic as lack of services, he could have a hard time when he looks for a new home.

The issue has recently come up at the Tapestry, a new LEED-certified rental complex from developer Jonathan Rose Cos.  [more]

Advocates charge Senate Democrats with a disregard for tenants’ rights

State Senator Carl Kruger (top left), State Senator Pedro Espada (bottom left) and activists at the protest this afternoon

About a dozen activists were arrested outside government offices Downtown today, during a protest criticizing the Democratic-controlled State Senate for failing to vote on a 10-bill package of legislation that could potential [more]